5/31/2005

Sony Tests CD Copy Protection

Sony BMG Music entertainment is testing a technology solution to enhance copy protection of CDs, barring consumers from making additional copies of burned CD-R discs.
The company has released ten commercial titles since March this year, featuring the technology from UK s anti-piracy firm, First4Internet, This technology allows consumers to make limited copies of the protected disc and blocks users from making any further copies of the copied disk. The concept termed 'sterile burning' is aimed at curbing casual CD burning.
According to Thomas Hesse, president of global digital business, Sony BMG, casual piracy is a huge issue for the industry. Two-thirds of piracy is due to ripping and burning CDs, which is why ensuring a better copy protection is of a higher importance.
Other Sony BMG partners are expected to begin commercial trials of this technology within the next month.
Digital Rights Management (DRM)-protected files sold through online music stores offer burning of tracks into unprotected WAV files, which can be later ripped back without the DRM wrapper and converted into MP3 format.
However, in the new technology the tracks ripped and burned from a copy-protected disc are copied to a blank CD in WMA format. The DRM embedded on the disc prevents the CD from being duplicated.
First4Internet CEO Mathew Gilliat-Smith believes that most consumers want to make copies for their own personal use, but, the industry is interested in ensure that this is not abused, by consumer making copies for other people, which will directly affect sales.
Additionally, copy protected CDs with Albums featuring XCP (extended copy protection) will allow users to make three copies of the disc.
Sony BMG is not keen on limiting the number of copies that can be made, but is looking to offering users with a fair-use replication of rights.
The only concern with copy protection remains compatibility. Secure burning would also mean iPod and portable music device owners will not be able to transfer tracks from these CDs.

5/29/2005

Firefox users fight phishing

Firefox users have been flocking to the Netcraft website to download the security company's new anti-phishing toolbar.

The free toolbar, released Tuesday, was downloaded more than 60,000 times within hours of its release, according to Netcraft Internet Services Developer Paul Mutton. By comparison, the company's anti-phishing toolbar for Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) browser has been downloaded around 100,000 times since its release earlier this year, he said.

"This seems to indicate that the Firefox community is more interested in security," Mutton said.

An increase in phishing attacks has been grabbing the attention of Internet merchants, end users and security providers alike. Phishing is a type of online fraud in which criminals send e-mails that entice users into visiting Webs sites designed to look like those of a legitimate company, such as a bank or auction provider, for example. Users are asked to enter sensitive information such as a credit card number or passwords.

The scam is currently one of the most prevalent Internet threats, according to security researchers. And given the profit potential, online criminals are becoming more cunning in their attacks, by targeting scams at users of particular banks, or by geographical location, Mutton said.

Netcraft's anti-phishing toolbar seeks to thwart these kinds of threats by blocking access to reported phishing sites. Once the first recipients of a phishing email report the URL of a fake site, the site is blocked for toolbar users.

Netcraft checks each reported site to verify whether it is phony, in order to avoid blocking legitimate sites, Mutton said.

The toolbar also displays the hosting location and a risk rating for each site visited. While the product is free for Internet users, Netcraft licenses a version to organisations such as banks to put their own brand on.

Netcraft has no current plans to offer versions of the toolbar for other browsers.

"There's no other browser as popular as Firefox right now," Mutton said. The open source browser,has nowhere near the market share of IE, but has been steadily gaining users. As of 18 February, IE had a market share in the US of 89.9 percent, down from 92.9 percent in November, according to analytics firm WebSideStory.

Firefox, meanwhile, had grabbed 5.7 percent of the US market as of February, up from 3 percent in November. Internet companies have taken note of its rising popularity. Yahoo began offering a toolbar for Firefox earlier this year, and Google has snapped up one of its key developers. But with success has come a downside: Security researchers are reporting an increase in threats aimed at the alternative browser.

When it comes to phishing, at least, Netcraft hopes to have an answer. "People are showing a lot of interest in the Firefox toolbar," Mutton said.

5/26/2005

Yahoo!'s Photomail

The portal and search engine company offers another online tool; this one lets you e-mail 300 digital photos to your friends.
In a Reuters article, the Sunnyvale-based portal and search company announced a new service for its users. As a test version, users will be able to send up to 300 pictures to a recipient.
Features like captions and borders can be added to each picture. Some minor editing may be performed on photos as well.
And in addition to e-mailing photos to others, users will be able to store an unlimited number of photos on Yahoo's computers, with a Yahoo account.
While most Web-based e-mail services would have users send photos as attachments, and limit the number of attachments by a certain number of megabytes, Yahoo's PhotoMail will let users place photos directly within the body of an e-mail message.
Yahoo has not posted details about PhotoMail on its web site yet.

5/20/2005

Google announces personalized home page

Google Inc. on Thursday introduced a new option that will enable visitors to display more information on the online search engine leader's bare-bones home page, a departure that pushes the company a step closer to operating an Internet portal in the mold of rivals Yahoo and MSN.com.

The feature, available at http://labs.google.com, allows the millions of Google users worldwide to select components tools located underneath the search engine's hood and display them on the main page.

For instance, a user could choose to have the weather, an e-mailbox, movie listings, top news stories, stock market quotes, and driving directions displayed whenever they visit Google's home page and sign in using a personalized account. The company unveiled the feature during a media day hosted at its Mountain View headquarters.

5/18/2005

Yahoo! Messenger v7.0.0.242 (Beta)

Unlike e-mail, instant messages appear as soon they're sent. By downloading the application to your computer, you can send instant messages.
Other features include voice chat, file transfer, mail and stock quote alerts, sports scores, news, and much more.
As we gave you all a small glimpse over Yahoo! Messenger v7.0 (Beta), yahoo has finally launched the US version of Yahoo! Messenger v7.0 (Beta), soon other country will get their own customised client.
FeaturesAdd and invite friends from Outlook and Yahoo! Address Book
Build your Messenger List by adding contacts from Yahoo! Address Book and Outlook.
Share your contact information with friends
Send your contact information to a friend.
Search the web from within Messenger
Search the web from the IM window, the Messenger List and from Yahoo! Insider.
Report SPAM
Identify messages from people you don't know as SPAM to ensure you don't receive messages from them again.
Archive
Access to previous instant messaging conversations.
Yahoo! 360 integration
Invite friends to Yahoo! 360 and view their updates.
Share Messenger List
Share the friends on your Messenger List with your friends so friends of friends can connect.
Call feature
Free worldwide PC to PC calls.
Drag and drop file transfer
Drag and drop multiple files in the IM window.
Stealth Settings
Control over who sees you online or offline.
Voicemail
Leave voicemail messages for friends when they can't talk with you.
Download : (US Edition) Click HereDownload : (Indian Edition) Click Here
Download the Yahoo! Download Manager for Yahoo! Messenger v7.0(Beta) and select the option you need and install the application
Screenshots

5/17/2005

Do you need MS Desktop Search??

Just when Google released the Desktop Search, Microsoft also launched the much hyped MSN Toolbar Suite Beta which promises to find files, photos, and music, the interface is fancy and cool.
I am sure this has convinced you enough to download this suite and try it yourself. But just wait before hitting the download button. Why do you need MS Desktop Search when your computer already has MS Desktop Search installed - Microsoft just didn't tell you until now how to use it. It's called Windows Indexing Service, and it's a standard feature of Windows 2000 and Windows XP. You can use Indexing Service to index documents and document properties on your disks and store the information in a catalog. You can also use Indexing Service to search for documents, either through Search on the Start menu or through a Web browser.
To actually use Indexing Services as it was originally intended, you need to utter a few magic words, which Microsoft has chosen to keep secret from the common user.

To turn on the Indexing Service

OpenComputer Management.

In the Console tree, double-click Services and Applications.

Double-click Indexing Services and start the service

Notes

To open Computer Management, click Start, and then click Control Panel. Click Performance and Maintenance, click Administrative Tools, and then double-click Computer Management.

First, turn on Indexing Service, and leave it alone for a few hours so it can index all your drives. Then open the Windows file search box as you would normally.- for example, by choosing it on the Start menu.Here's where the magic starts. First of all, type only in the space labelled 'A word or phrase in the file' (or in Windows 2000, 'Containing Text').Now, to find a word inside a file, simply preface it with '!'. And, to find a filename, preface it with '@filename'.So typing '!vacation' and hitting 'enter' will instantly find files containing the word 'vacation'. And '@filename vacation' will instantly display all filenames containing the complete word vacation. You can add a '*' to the end to find other words like 'vacationing'.
It appears that the new MSN search simply provides a more user friendly front end to this existing service, and makes a few more file types searchable. If Google hadn't come along to give Microsoft a good kick up the BIOS, Windows' secret desktop search function would have remained in obscurity for many years to come.
So Microsoft is just trying to market a tool that is already on your computer. Microsoft is just a marketing company that also sells software

Sony unveils PlayStation 3

Sony won't have a new console on the market this holiday season, but it's doing all it can to convince consumers to wait a bit longer before buying their next video game machine.

The company unveiled details of its planned PlayStation 3 Monday, showing off a machine with enormous horsepower, stunning graphics and a slew of multimedia elements.

Due in about a year, the PlayStation 3 boasts an engine 35 times more powerful than the PlayStation 2, according to Sony. It will support up to seven wireless controllers and has outputs for two high-definition televisions (HDTVs).

Sony's PlayStation 3

Sony did not announce whether it plans to launch the system first in Japan, then months later in North America, as has been its practice with previous PlayStations, or simultaneously throughout the world.

"All of us at Sony Computer Entertainment have been waiting a long time for this moment," Kaz Hirai, President and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America, said at a news conference.

"We have always attempted to do things differently. Our vision has taken us to unprecedented levels of success and innovation. Just keeping up with conventional technology is not enough for us."

The PS3 will be fully "backward compatible," playing all existing PlayStation and PlayStation 2 games. It will come equipped with a Blu-Ray DVD drive and support the sharpest format for HDTV, 1080p.

Wireless controllers using Bluetooth technology will be standard. Sony said the system will support up to seven simultaneous players, a significant boost from the four standard today.

Additionally, PSP owners will be able to use their handheld gaming device as either a controller or an additional screen, perhaps viewing tactical or statistical information that ties in with the game on your television.

Graphically, Sony showed a number of clips running on PlayStation 3 hardware, including "Devil May Cry," "Metal Gear Solid," "Gran Tursimo" and "Tekken" and had live interactive demos of several games.

The PS3 will ship with a detachable 2.5-inch hard drive and will include slots for a number of consumer electronic digital storage devices, including Sony memory sticks, SD memory cards and compact flash cards.

In addition to playing games, it will allow users to access digital video and audio files, view digital pictures, offer video chat and allow users to access the Internet.

5/16/2005

Microsoft launches desktop search toolbar

Microsoft has released an MSN Search toolbar with Windows Desktop Search, a suite of tools that help users to rapidly search for files and information across the web or their PC.

The solution will compete with desktop search solutions under development from Yahoo and Google.

The toolbar lets users search their desktops from within familiar applications such as Internet Explorer and Microsoft Office Outlook.

Incorporating free enhancements for Windows 2000 and Windows XP customers, the toolbar will make it easier for users to find and retrieve documents, e-mail, images, video and other files on their machines.

"Users can now search their PC as fast as they can search the web," said Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft senior vice-president for the MSN information services and merchant platform division. "The new MSN Search toolbar makes it easy for customers to find precisely what they're looking for, no matter where it resides."

The current version of the toolbar is designed for all users, but Microsoft is planning to launch a version specifically for corporates in beta form by the end of the year. This version will have a number of customisable options for firms.

5/15/2005

Xbox 360 unveiled

This weekend's big news is of course the unveiling of the Xbox 360. The new console system debuted on MTV Thursday, with Microsoft revealing the white-and-silver console and what secrets it contains. No less than three IBM microprocessors will be utilised to provide a whole new generation of gaming performance that leaves the original Xbox standing still.

The Xbox is powered by a 733-megahertz central processor. The central processing unit in Xbox 360 has three 3.2-gigahertz processors. Each processor is four times faster than the original Xbox.Together these chips deliver 1 trillion calculations per second, which puts it in the same teraflop category as the supercomputers of just a few years back. This massive amount of data crunching generates so much heat that the Xbox has a water cooling system like an automobile's radiator.
Steven L. Kent, author of "The Ultimate History of Video Games," described the difference between the old and new Xbox as akin to "race cars and rockets", saying that whilst both consoles were made for speed, the new Xbox was in a whole other order of magnitude. All of this speed will not come at the expense of new functionality too, with the new Xbox offering players wide screens, high-definition images, surround-sound and an improved ability to cater to multiple players and online competition. But games are not all that the new Xbox caters too: the Xbox 360 can also serve as a home entertainment system that can play mp3s, view photos and videos and stream broadband to a TV. The new Xbox also includes a 20-gigabyte hard drive, three USB ports that permit one to plug in things like a digital camera, an external hard drive, a camcorder or a keyboard, so that the device can be used to send e-mail or to exchange text messages.
Some care has also been taken to address concerns from users that the original Xbox took up too much space on the living room floor.
The new console will be about 20 percent smaller. It will also allow interior-decor-conscious gamers to snap on or off faceplates to customize this machine's cream-white appearance.
Xbox 360 should be immediately supported by a growing number of games titles, since apparently EA has been working on Xbox 360 titles for more than two years now. During the US airing of the Xbox 360 MTV special, the new Xbox 360 version of Need For Speed: Most Wanted was demonstrated to great effect.
The only potential downside is compatibility with older Xbox games. No one yet has been able to give a complete, straight answer as to whether the Xbox 360 will be fully compatible with games for the original Xbox.

Update:- Microsoft Corp. said on Monday its new Xbox 360 will run video games developed for the earlier generation of its gaming machine, an enticement to get fans who have already spent hundreds of dollars on older Xbox games to purchase new hardware

5/13/2005

Firefox vulnerabilities patched

Mozilla has released a new version of the Firefox Web browser to patch critical vulnerabilities. Users are encouraged to upgrade from version 1.0.3 to 1.0.4 to protect their systems from the possible threats.
The Firefox 1.0.4 Release Notes are simple:

What's New 1.0.4
Firefox 1.0.4 is a security update that is part of our ongoing program to provide a safe Internet experience for our customers. We recommend that all users upgrade to this latest version.
Here's what's new in Firefox 1.0.4:

Several security fixes.

Fix to DHTML errors encountered at some web sites.

The security weaknesses, listed by Mozilla as MFSA 2005-44: Privilege escalation via non-DOM property overrides, MFSA 2005-43: "Wrapped" javascript: urls bypass security checks, and
MFSA 2005-42: Code execution via javascript: IconURL, were deemed extremely critical, and proof of concept exploits had been making their way around the Internet. The patches for the flaw are out less than a week after security firm Secunia reported the issues. However, Firefox has had more reported security threats this year than Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

5/12/2005

Laptop for 10,000 Rs

A computer, a mobile one, for Rs.10,000? A Bangalore-based company on Tuesday announced the development of such a system under a project sponsored by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). It is expected to be available commercially in three months.

Vinay L. Deshpande, chairman and chief executive officer of Encore Software, told a press conference the system would have the essential features of a conventional personal computer: everyday applications such as word processing, spreadsheet, personal information manager, e-mail and web-browser. It will play music and movies, have text-to-speech conversion facility and built-in local-language support. For now, Kannada, Hindi, and Marathi; work is in progress on Tamil and Telugu. It will weigh 500 gm and be compact. It can be synchronised with a regular PC, "considering that it [a PC] cannot be wished away.''

It will have no hard disk but will have built-in memory and facility to plug in memory cards for any storage over and above that provided for in the built-in memory. It will not have games. High-speed computing is ruled out. The reasoning is that "while adding to the cost, these are of no use to many users.''

The main aim, Mr. Deshpande said, was to develop a system that was affordable and provided the essential features, "without the unnecessary fluff of the conventional systems.'' The target audience is households, small shops, professionals such as lawyers and chartered accountants, and field staff of pharmaceutical, insurance and other industries. It could be used as e-book readers by educational institutions, for telemedicine and as a nurse's aide.

5/08/2005

Bits and Bytes

Because computers are made up of digital electronics, internally they respond to two kinds of electrical states: "on" or "off". These may actually be high or low voltage, positive and negative voltage, or some other combination. The key is that there are two conditions. We represent these with two numbers: 0 and 1, and the arithmetic that deals with these two states is called binary arithmetic.

Each 0 or 1 in the binary system is termed a bit (short for binary digit).

Strings of bits are used to represent numbers larger than 1 (much like combinations of digits are used to represent numbers larger than 9 in our decimal numbering system.

Bits in strings of eight are called bytes, and one byte usually represents a single character of data in the computer. It's a little used term, but you might be interested in knowing that a nibble is half a byte (usually 4 bits).

Binary Numbers Explained

Let's look at the concept of binary numbers and bytes a little closer.

Think of binary numbers in terms of switches. With two switches you can represent up to four different numbers.

0 0 (OFF OFF) = Decimal 0

0 1 (OFF ON) = Decimal 1

1 0 (ON OFF) = Decimal 2

1 1 (ON ON) = Decimal 3

Study the above for a moment -- it brings out an important concept in computers. Do you see it?

Look at the decimal number versus the number of numbers. Two binary numbers gives you up to decimal 3, but there are four actual numbers. In our decimal system, we rarely think of the zero; with computers, zero is always thought of as a number.

Thus, a single bit represents 2 numbers, two bits give 4 numbers, three bits show 8 numbers, four bits represent 16 numbers, and so forth up to a byte, or eight bits, which represents 256 numbers. (Each added bit doubles the number of numbers.) But, while 8 bits represents 256 numbers the byte 11111111 equals decimal 255.

Just to show you the correspondence between binary and decimal numbers here is a table that runs down a few:

Binary numbers are formed just like decimal, except there are only two numbers to work with. Exhaust those two numbers and start over with the next position to the left filled with a "1".

When you are down to 111 you simply start the entire marked series over again with a 1 in front of it. Thus, every time you add a binary digit to the string you effectively double the number of total decimal numbers available for use.

Look at the table. One bit counts to two numbers, two bits count to four numbers, three bits to eight numbers, four bits to 16 numbers, five to 32, six to 64, seven to 128 and finally, one byte (8 bits) counts to 256 numbers.

Google Releases Web Accelerator

Google Inc. has launched in beta software that the company says will speed up the time it takes to search the Internet and to load web content.

Web Accelerator, which is available at no charge, runs alongside a browser and directs all searches and page requests through Google's servers. The software supports Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer and the Mozilla Foundation's Firefox browsers.

In improving performance on the web, the application makes use of a cache, or data store, on the local computer, as well as caches on Google's servers, Marissa Mayer, director of consumer web products for Google, said Thursday. The software is only available for broadband users.

The desktop cache is for web pages that are pre-loaded based on a person's web activity. The software uses mathematical formulas to try to determine what web content the person is most likely to seek, based on prior behavior. The cache on Google's server is populated with popular web content based on the activity of Web Accelerator users as a whole.

Feeding web pages either from a desktop cache or a Google server is normally faster than getting the content from the public Internet. In addition, Google compresses the data for faster movement to the browser.

Google estimates that people who spend 20 hours to 30 hours a week on the Internet, could shave off about two to three hours a month in the time spent searching and loading web pages.

Privacy advocates, however, expressed concern over storing people's web browsing activities. Such information could be subpoenaed later by law enforcement agencies investigating criminal cases or by lawyers in civil cases.

UPDATE:-
"Thank you for your interest in Google Web Accelerator.We have currently reached our
maximum capacity of users and are actively working to increase the number of users we can support."

These are the mysterious words from Google only a few days after its release of Google Web Accelerator.

Google has taken the link down to stop users from downloading the accelerator because of serious privacy issues and some other problems.

Their site http://webaccelerator.google.com/download is down and that redirects to their
toolbar.I tried http://webaccelerator.google.com/GoogleWebAcceleratorSetup.msi, bingo still up and running, they just took off the link. The download is STILL available! but i strongly recommend you not to download the accelerator.

5/03/2005

AOL Previews Next-Gen Instant Messenger

Latest News about AOL is preparing to ditch its decade-old instant messaging Latest News about instant messaging platform, building a replacement from scratch that's designed to integrate text, audio, video and future forms of communication.

AOL has released an early, limited-feature preview of its next-generation IM software, called Triton, and hopes to complete it by year's end. AOL plans only one more update to the existing AIM software, now at version 5.9.
The key difference will be the use of tabs to manage a growing list of contacts.
Currently, chats with different contacts occur in separate windows, quickly cluttering the computer desktop. Add to that ways to communicate beyond text, including audio, video and file transfers.
Triton (pronounced TRY-ton) keeps all that within a single window. You'll flip through vertical tabs to change contacts and horizontal ones to switch the mode of communication.
AOL engineers took a modular approach in building Triton. That means new features, such as support for Internet-based phones, can be easily added as a block rather than retrofitted into the software as is now the case.
Chamath Palihapitiya, general manager of AIM, said the original software was designed in 1996 with text in mind.
"Would you ever have thought in 1996 that this computer is going to be used for ... sending stuff to mobile phones Latest News about mobile phones and initiating calls over the Internet?" he asked.
Triton will also incorporate "IM Catcher," IM's version of a spam folder. The tool collects all messages from those not on your buddy list.